The name of “Woodspring” does not appear in print before 1791, when it is found in Collinson’s “History of Somerset.” Before that date it was always referred to as “Worspring.” The name has puzzled many, but it is really a simple corruption14 of the original term, “Worle-spring,” indicating the situation of the Priory on a rill that descended15 to these levels by the sea from the neighbourhood of Worle heights.
The Priory was founded in the first instance by Reginald FitzUrse, as a chapel17 of expiation18 of his share in the murder of Thomas à Becket. It was in 1210 refounded on a much larger scale by William de Courtenay, grandson, on the maternal19 side, of William Tracy, another of those sacrilegious knights20. Courtenay endowed it as a home of Austin Canons and triply dedicated the establishment in honour of the Blessed Virgin21 Mary, the Holy and Undivided Trinity, and St. Thomas à Becket; and it was further enriched by lands bequeathed by Maud, the daughter, and Alice, the granddaughter, of the third murderer, le Bret or Brito: Alice expressing the devout22 hope that 58the intercession of the blessed martyr23 might always be available for herself and her children.
The seal of the Priory is curious. In the lower portion of the usual vesica-shaped device is an allusion24 to the dedication25 to St. Thomas of Canterbury, in the form of a representation of his martyrdom: Becket being shown falling by the altar, on which stands a chalice26, at the moment of his skull27 being cleft28 by Richard le Bret’s sword, which protrudes29, immensely large in proportion to the figure of the Archbishop, from the border.
WOODSPRING PRIORY.
After more than three hundred and twenty years of an almost unruffled existence, this obscure religious house was suppressed in common with others, and its fabric30 and possessions confiscated31. It was surrendered on September 27th, 1536, and the monks32 turned adrift upon the world, perhaps too late in life to set about the performance of any honest work; but by no means with that utter indifference33 as to whether they were clothed and fed, or went in rags and starved, that the apologists for monkery and critics of Henry the Eighth and his Ministers of State would have us believe. No: unless they had proved contumacious34, the rulers and the brethren of the disestablished religious houses were pensioned. The last Prior of Woodspring, Roger Tormenton, who was appointed in 1525, received a pension of £12 per annum upon his surrendering the Priory in 1536—a sum equal to nearly £100 at present values. The Priory itself was then leased for twenty-one years to 59Edward Fettiplace, of Donington, Berkshire: one of the formerly35 numerous family of that name once settled chiefly in that county and in Oxfordshire, but now utterly36 extinct. Passing through many hands, it is now among the properties of the Smyth-Pigott family, owners of much land hereabouts, including the site of Weston-super-Mare.
There can surely be no farmhouse37 more ecclesiastical in appearance than that of Woodspring Priory. As the traveller approaches it across the rough occupation-roads of two large pastures, he sees the noble central tower of what was the Priory church rising exquisitely38 from a characteristically English rural scene of tall elms, profuse39 hedgerows, and succulent grass. Rude wooden field-gates and rutty tracks partly filled with straw combed off passing heavy-laden farm-waggons by projecting brambles, conduct him into a farmyard where porkers grunt40 from their sties and cows low from their linhays in a not unmusical orchestration; the grey and lichened41 stonework of the Priory tithe-barn and the tall tower surrounding them with an unwonted halo of romantic association. On that spot where, in the olden days of Woodspring’s pride, the porter slid back his hatch in the gatehouse, in answer to the stranger’s knock, the pigs snuffle in their troughs and thrust pink snouts through palisades, enquiring42 curiously43 who comes this way. A fantastic thought possibly occurs to the modern pilgrim that they 60might be re-incarnations of those old fat porters themselves; and a glance into those pig-houses further discloses fine Berkshires there, as sleek44 and well-larded as any greasy45 medi?val Prior.
The entrance to the farmyard is flanked with a somewhat noble effect by heavy sculptured stones bearing shields. That on the right hand bears the sacred symbols of the five wounds of our Lord, with a heart in the centre; while on the left is the heraldic coat of the Dodingtons, anciently among the benefactors46 of the Priory; a chevron47 between three bugle-horns, stringed, two and one; a crescent for difference.
Less remains of the Priory church than might be at first supposed from the majestic48 bulk of the tower and the tall buildings that once formed nave49 and aisles51. The choir52 has entirely53 disappeared, and the nave itself, with the north aisle50 of three bays, has been divided into floors for the purposes of a dwelling-house. It may thus readily be imagined that the interior is as little ecclesiastical in appearance as can well be; although it is true that winding stone staircases serve instead of ordinary domestic stairs, and that here and there some ancient carved corbel, fashioned in the likeness54 of a human head, projects from walls otherwise to all appearance secular55; its stony countenance56 seeming to grin and gibber in the flickering57 light of a bedroom candle. Clustered stone pillars, too, thrusting through upper floors, and ending in capitals and sweeping58 arches, would convince the stranger 61that he had found himself in some farmhouse entirely out of the common order. Even the coalcellar, which was once a part of the north aisle, has its features, and the coals repose59 on incised slabs60 and other memorials of the dead. The cloisters61, also, have disappeared; and the monks’ refectory, a detached building on the south side, is now a waggon-shed, its windows filled in with bricks. A peep within discloses a fine open-timbered roof. The only building that yet retains its ancient use is the Prior’s Barn, still, as in bygone centuries, the storehouse of grain, straw, and hay. At the east end of it is a doorway62, now blocked up, formerly leading by nineteen steps down to the existing pool called the “Holy Well.” The “Prior’s Pool” is the name of a pond in the meadows westward63, to which an avenue of elms leads.
Sand Bay, nearly as large as Weston Bay, but quite lonely, stretches from St. Thomas’s Head and Swallow Cliff to Anchor Head, Weston-super-Mare. Shingle64 and sand continue in an unbroken semicircular sweep, fringed by pastures, to the neighbourhood of Kewstoke, a small village situated65 on a shelf of rock below the craggy uplands of Worle Hill, and yet raised above the meadows. Nowadays Kewstoke is greatly afflicted66 in summer by brakes and traps, and strollers from Weston, for it is but two miles from the town, and there are the beautiful Kewstoke woods fringing the road all the way. It thus forms an easy and popular morning or afternoon 62trip, in spite of the fact that a small toll67 is payable68 for the use of it—this being really a private road cut by a Smyth-Pigott in 1848, and used by the public only at the pleasure of those all-pervading landowners of this neighbourhood. Indeed, were it not for this fine level road through the dense69 woods, Kewstoke would scarcely ever be visited, save by young and energetic people, prepared to circle round by the rugged70 old way through Worle.
There are legends of St. Kew at Kewstoke. On the rocky crest71 of Worle Hill, looking down upon the village, is an ancient excavation72 of some twenty feet by twelve, popularly known as “St. Kew’s Cell”; and the long rude flight of over two hundred rocky steps towards it is, of course, “St. Kew’s Steps.” But not the most patient arch?ologist has ever traced any genuine association with St. Kew here. The place-name has, however, a real connection with that so-called “cell” on the height, for the excavation was a part of the elaborate defensive73 works constructed by ancient peoples on the summit of the Hill: a kind of guard-house situated in a difficult approach, where a small garrison74 could easily from behind a palisade or stockade75 hinder the advance of many. It is an ascertained76 fact that here, at various periods of strife77, throughout many centuries, people of widely sundered78 eras have taken up a defensive position. Among the many curious finds made in or near this pit was an ancient silver fibula, or ring, coeval79 with the 63Ph?nicians who are traditionally said to have traded to these coasts three thousand years ago; a Saxon knife; coarse early pottery80; remains of a fifteenth-century spear, and the hilt of a seventeenth-century sword.
RELIQUARY IN KEWSTOKE CHURCH (FRONT).
Although the sea in those times flowed to the very base of this hill, just below where the village church now stands, and submerged the site of the present broad meadowlands, it seems absolutely certain that the name of Kewstoke does not, as so often asserted, derive81 from the Celtic word “kewch,” or boat; and does not mean “the place of boats.” The hilltop guard-house gave the name, as may clearly be seen in Domesday Book, that valuable sidelight upon place-names, as also upon many other things. There we find “Chiwestock,” the not greatly corrupted82 version 64from the original form. It appears to mean “the stockade on the ridge83.”
The church, dedicated to St. Paul, is a small building, without aisles. Here is a fine Norman south door, but the principal features are Late Perpendicular84. The elaborate stone pulpit dates from about 1500. The old churchwardens’ accounts abound85 with curious items, among them that of 1702. “Item: gave unto 7 poor ship carpenters that had their bones broken at Bristoll, O. I. O.” Doubtless the benevolent86 churchwardens gave this shilling with strict injunctions to the seven broken-up carpenters not to be so extravagant87 as to spend it all at once. But whatever they did, it is quite certain that the ratepayers of Kewstoke admonished88 the churchwardens against this and other reckless charities, and gave them to fully89 understand that any future benevolences must come out of their own personal pockets.
There are no ancient monumental brasses90 in Kewstoke church; a fact perhaps fully accounted for by the following entry in the accounts: “1748. Item: paid for casting the ould brasses, 23 at 6d. ... 11. 6.”
So there we perceive the accumulated monuments of centuries going in one plunge91 into the melting-pot.
RELIQUARY IN KEWSTOKE CHURCH (BACK)
An interesting discovery was made during the restoration of Kewstoke church in 1849. A block of stone sculptured with a half-length figure, supposed to represent the Virgin Mary, built firmly into the north wall under the sill of 65a window, had long been a curious object of the interior of the building, and was by some antiquaries considered to be a heart-shrine. The greatly defaced figure appeared to be holding a shield. To satisfy curiosity, the stone was removed, disclosing a small arched hollowed-out chamber92 at the back, in which was a greatly decayed oak vessel93, or cup, partly split open by warping94. At the bottom of this was a dry black incrustation, pronounced to be congealed95 human blood. It was supposed, from the circumstances of the founding of Woodspring Priory, and from the fact of a cup, or chalice, forming a part of the Prior’s seal, that this relic96 was nothing less than a precious portion of the martyr’s blood—the greatest treasure owned by the Priory. It was further thought that the monks, foreseeing the troubles of the dissolution of the religious 66houses, caused the relic to be secretly removed and placed here, in Kewstoke church. It is now in Taunton Museum.
The Kewstoke woods, largely of scrub-oak, closely woven and interlaced and compacted together by the winds off the Channel, descend16 in tangled97 thickets98 to the water’s edge. At the end of them, a picturesque toll-gate marks the beginning of the modern pleasure-resort of Weston-super-Mare. No one need have the remotest shadow of a doubt that he has arrived, for the crowds of excursionists here and on that Walhalla of noisy enjoyment99, Birnbeck Pier100, make themselves very fully seen and heard.
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1 secluded | |
adj.与世隔绝的;隐退的;偏僻的v.使隔开,使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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2 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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3 promontory | |
n.海角;岬 | |
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4 dedicated | |
adj.一心一意的;献身的;热诚的 | |
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5 stony | |
adj.石头的,多石头的,冷酷的,无情的 | |
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6 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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7 purely | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
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8 waggons | |
四轮的运货马车( waggon的名词复数 ); 铁路货车; 小手推车 | |
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9 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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10 complexion | |
n.肤色;情况,局面;气质,性格 | |
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11 stamina | |
n.体力;精力;耐力 | |
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12 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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13 trite | |
adj.陈腐的 | |
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14 corruption | |
n.腐败,堕落,贪污 | |
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15 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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16 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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17 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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18 expiation | |
n.赎罪,补偿 | |
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19 maternal | |
adj.母亲的,母亲般的,母系的,母方的 | |
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20 knights | |
骑士; (中古时代的)武士( knight的名词复数 ); 骑士; 爵士; (国际象棋中)马 | |
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21 virgin | |
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
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22 devout | |
adj.虔诚的,虔敬的,衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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23 martyr | |
n.烈士,殉难者;vt.杀害,折磨,牺牲 | |
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24 allusion | |
n.暗示,间接提示 | |
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25 dedication | |
n.奉献,献身,致力,题献,献辞 | |
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26 chalice | |
n.圣餐杯;金杯毒酒 | |
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27 skull | |
n.头骨;颅骨 | |
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28 cleft | |
n.裂缝;adj.裂开的 | |
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29 protrudes | |
v.(使某物)伸出,(使某物)突出( protrude的第三人称单数 ) | |
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30 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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31 confiscated | |
没收,充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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33 indifference | |
n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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34 contumacious | |
adj.拒不服从的,违抗的 | |
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35 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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36 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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37 farmhouse | |
n.农场住宅(尤指主要住房) | |
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38 exquisitely | |
adv.精致地;强烈地;剧烈地;异常地 | |
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39 profuse | |
adj.很多的,大量的,极其丰富的 | |
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40 grunt | |
v.嘟哝;作呼噜声;n.呼噜声,嘟哝 | |
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41 lichened | |
adj.长满地衣的,长青苔的 | |
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42 enquiring | |
a.爱打听的,显得好奇的 | |
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43 curiously | |
adv.有求知欲地;好问地;奇特地 | |
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44 sleek | |
adj.光滑的,井然有序的;v.使光滑,梳拢 | |
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45 greasy | |
adj. 多脂的,油脂的 | |
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46 benefactors | |
n.捐助者,施主( benefactor的名词复数 );恩人 | |
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47 chevron | |
n.V形臂章;V形图案 | |
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48 majestic | |
adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
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49 nave | |
n.教堂的中部;本堂 | |
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50 aisle | |
n.(教堂、教室、戏院等里的)过道,通道 | |
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51 aisles | |
n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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52 choir | |
n.唱诗班,唱诗班的席位,合唱团,舞蹈团;v.合唱 | |
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53 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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54 likeness | |
n.相像,相似(之处) | |
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55 secular | |
n.牧师,凡人;adj.世俗的,现世的,不朽的 | |
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56 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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57 flickering | |
adj.闪烁的,摇曳的,一闪一闪的 | |
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58 sweeping | |
adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的 | |
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59 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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60 slabs | |
n.厚板,平板,厚片( slab的名词复数 );厚胶片 | |
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61 cloisters | |
n.(学院、修道院、教堂等建筑的)走廊( cloister的名词复数 );回廊;修道院的生活;隐居v.隐退,使与世隔绝( cloister的第三人称单数 ) | |
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62 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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63 westward | |
n.西方,西部;adj.西方的,向西的;adv.向西 | |
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64 shingle | |
n.木瓦板;小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌);v.用木瓦板盖(屋顶);把(女子头发)剪短 | |
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65 situated | |
adj.坐落在...的,处于某种境地的 | |
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66 afflicted | |
使受痛苦,折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67 toll | |
n.过路(桥)费;损失,伤亡人数;v.敲(钟) | |
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68 payable | |
adj.可付的,应付的,有利益的 | |
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69 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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70 rugged | |
adj.高低不平的,粗糙的,粗壮的,强健的 | |
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71 crest | |
n.顶点;饰章;羽冠;vt.达到顶点;vi.形成浪尖 | |
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72 excavation | |
n.挖掘,发掘;被挖掘之地 | |
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73 defensive | |
adj.防御的;防卫的;防守的 | |
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74 garrison | |
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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75 stockade | |
n.栅栏,围栏;v.用栅栏防护 | |
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76 ascertained | |
v.弄清,确定,查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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77 strife | |
n.争吵,冲突,倾轧,竞争 | |
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78 sundered | |
v.隔开,分开( sunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79 coeval | |
adj.同时代的;n.同时代的人或事物 | |
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80 pottery | |
n.陶器,陶器场 | |
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81 derive | |
v.取得;导出;引申;来自;源自;出自 | |
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82 corrupted | |
(使)败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)腐化; 引起(计算机文件等的)错误; 破坏 | |
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83 ridge | |
n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭 | |
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84 perpendicular | |
adj.垂直的,直立的;n.垂直线,垂直的位置 | |
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85 abound | |
vi.大量存在;(in,with)充满,富于 | |
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86 benevolent | |
adj.仁慈的,乐善好施的 | |
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87 extravagant | |
adj.奢侈的;过分的;(言行等)放肆的 | |
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88 admonished | |
v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 );训诫;(温和地)责备;轻责 | |
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89 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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90 brasses | |
n.黄铜( brass的名词复数 );铜管乐器;钱;黄铜饰品(尤指马挽具上的黄铜圆片) | |
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91 plunge | |
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲 | |
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92 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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93 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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94 warping | |
n.翘面,扭曲,变形v.弄弯,变歪( warp的现在分词 );使(行为等)不合情理,使乖戾, | |
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95 congealed | |
v.使凝结,冻结( congeal的过去式和过去分词 );(指血)凝结 | |
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96 relic | |
n.神圣的遗物,遗迹,纪念物 | |
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97 tangled | |
adj. 纠缠的,紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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98 thickets | |
n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 );丛状物 | |
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99 enjoyment | |
n.乐趣;享有;享用 | |
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100 pier | |
n.码头;桥墩,桥柱;[建]窗间壁,支柱 | |
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